Love Variety Show: The despised me exploded in popularity

The planning for the Chang'an sub-venue had entered the final stage, and rehearsals needed to start by the end of the month at the latest.

With just three and a half months left until the Spring Festival Gala, the exterior shots were already being prepared. However, the previous plan had been overturned, and the final scheme was still being delayed.
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The last version of the plan was too innovative, but the requirements of the Spring Festival Gala are... Rather than innovation, it cares more about the message. In terms of style, it prefers serious yet lively.

Being serious means it should pass censorship; being lively means it should integrate with the times.

Ji Shi'an was a true native of Chang'an, with a deep understanding of the local customs and culture. This is one reason why he was the chief director, a geographic advantage.

By comparison, He Guojin was an outsider, and no matter how well he understood Chang'an, it wasn't as good as Ji Shi'an. There's no question about it, another reason was connections.

Seventy percent of the directors were locals, Ji Shi'an could pull together performances from the Chang'an Symphony Orchestra and combine all the dance troupes from the university town in Chang'an.

He also had multiple experiences hosting major performances in Chang'an, including the local Lantern Festival gala.

All these factors put together made Ji Shi'an the natural choice for the chief director.

It wasn't without disadvantages, though. The director group had previously inspected and come up with a plan. But it was rejected just before the final decision, a good idea but lacking in meaning.

"Xiao Xu is not bad, a promising talent," said Ji Shi'an.

"Yeah, indeed not bad, his words hit the nail on the head," Lu Liangsheng smiled, "I looked up his resume online before, and honestly, meeting him in person changed my mind."

"What do you mean? Is it a lot worse?"

"Different... quite a bit, I'd say. He's pretty good at writing songs," Lu Liangsheng said, "The MVs are well-shot, you can tell he's skilled, and that song 'Big Fish' is honestly not bad."

"Good at singing, good at writing, and can direct too, this kid is a talent," Ji Shi'an paused, "Not sure what role to give him, put him in the director group?"

"No rush, let's look at it in a few days," suggested Lu Liangsheng, "Or we could throw him into the technical group to simmer down for a couple of days, young people can be somewhat impetuous."

"That works."

...

Xu Qingyan came out of the building, still a bit dazed.

Noon.

He Guojin had something to do in the afternoon and went to eat at the cafeteria on his own. So, he became a free agent again, probably until tomorrow before he would get notice from the other side.

With time to spare, he again didn't know what to do.

He scrolled through the chat list for a while, not knowing what Pei Muchan was up to. Lin Wanzhou had not messaged him, and Shen Jinyue's messages stopped yesterday.

Sigh, wanting to send a message but not knowing what to say.

He only knew one thing had been approved, but without any concrete news, it was hard to say exactly what he would be doing. He even thought about going back to Xinghai today and returning tomorrow.

Buzz, a message from Lin Wanzhou came in.

"Going to release a new song."

"Today?" Xu Qingyan replied immediately.

The other side displayed "typing…" and after a while sent over a video. Sister Lin's usual half-face appeared on camera, blinking at him.

"Where are you?"

"xxxx," he named a place, and the two chatted for a while.

Lin Wanzhou gave him a few words of encouragement, which did somewhat soothe his loneliness. He had never felt it before, but now he was suddenly aware of that feeling of being a stranger in a strange land.

After ending the video call, Xu Qingyan returned to his hotel.

He slept till dusk, and after waking up, he didn't see a single message from Pei Muchan. He couldn't help but wonder if Pei was living it up on her own?

Thinking like this, he suddenly felt a bit sour inside.

A man's strange pride kept him from contacting Pei Muchan, all the way until eight in the evening while he was still concerned whether she had made it home safely.

After all, Lin Wanzhou had Qi Ting as constant company.

Pei Muchan was used to being alone; she had only held a few concerts before and hadn't made much money. What she had now, all came from her savings.

The singers who could be named were rarely poor, but some would spend a little money in certain areas to get further ahead, such as producing albums at a loss.

Or buying trending spots, marketing accounts, and paying for exposure on variety shows.

She never engaged in such practices and didn't even do business at a loss. If a concert could make money she would hold one, but swapping fame for loss was not her style.

The seemingly high and cold goddess was actually much like a hamster, hoarding little savings bit by bit until she had managed to scrape together two houses and two cars.

When she spoke of losses, it was by the standards of industry insiders.

For example, if she earned xxx million from a concert and made a third less this time, it counted as a loss. Publicly, she would say she's having a terrible year, with a one-third deficit.

When singers talk like this, you just listen. If you take it seriously, you might get so worried about your beloved sister, you'd faint on learning the truth.

Although Pei Muchan was indeed losing money consistently, she limited her losses to the studio. But over half a year it added up to less than a million, which she earned back after a few love-oriented variety shows.

Her pace of releasing songs once a month was more than all her releases put together from the previous year.

After much thought, Xu Qingyan still made a video call to Pei Muchan. Through the long wait, he had no idea what she might be up to.

Jiangpan Residential Area in Xinghai.

Pei Muchan was lying at home alone, with all the lights off.

She appeared indifferent, yet like the previous time, she felt empty since Xu Qingyan had left for just a day. Everything she did felt off, and she especially couldn't adapt.

For this reason, she specifically went online to search for information and ended up discovering some severe mental disorder, which even recommended a hospital for her, scaring her enough to immediately shut it off.